Our Humble God

{John 13:12-17; NLT}

When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, "Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them."

To me one of the most amazing qualities about God is humility.  Think about the reality of the Creator of the universe is humble.  The One who deserves our worship is humble enough to serve us, His creation.  It is unbelievable.

I know humility is not the first quality that comes to mind when we think about God, but it is one nonetheless.  This quality surprises us because we know how we act when we have a little bit success or a little bit of authority.  Humility is rarely what is on our mind.  What is on our mind are the praise, congratulations, and the admiration of people.  It is hard for us to be humble.

In the text we discover Jesus, who is the exact representation of God, humbly washing the feet of his disciples. This humble service extended to Judas, his betrayer, as well.  The Creator of the Universe humbly stooped to wash the dirt off the feet of his rebellious creation.  What an act of love and humility that was!

May that image of God stick with us as we go about our daily lives.  If our God can be humble, then you and I need to be humble as well.

Daily Thought: Humility Requires Self-Awareness

Humility's closest attribute is honesty. Humility doesn't require us to be self-deprecating. Humility is not about having a low self-image or poor self-esteem. Humility is about self-awareness. It is important to be self-aware in relationship to our gifts, talents, skills, and intellect, but in regard to our spiritual health, it is far more essential that we are self-aware in the arena of personal character. If you see yourself for who you are and embrace it honestly, humility is the natural result.

Erwin McManus, Uprising, Thomas Nelson (2003), p. 47

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Daily Thought: The Royal Spirit

Men sometimes speak as if humility and meekness would rob us of what is noble and bold and manlike.  Oh, that all would believe that this is the nobility of the kingdom of Heaven, that this is the royal spirit that the King of Heaven displayed, that this is Godlike, to humble oneself, to become the servant of all! This is the path to gladness and the glory of Christ's presence ever in us, his power ever resting on us.

Andrew Murray, Humility and Absolute Surrender, Hendrickson Publishers (2005), p. 20

Daily Thought: Redeemed from Pride

All the wretchedness of which this world has been the scene, all its wars and bloodshed among the nations, all its selfishness and suffering, all it ambitions and jealousies, all its broken hearts and embittered lives, with all its daily unhappiness, have their origin in what this cursed, hellish pride, either our own, or that of others, has brought us.  It is pride that made our redemption needful; it is from our pride we need, above everything, to be redeemed.

Andrew Murray, Humility and Absolute Surrender, Hendrickson Publishers (2005), p. 10

Prayer: Nothing to Offer

Matthew 5:3

Father in Heaven,

What can I offer that is worthy of Your love for me? You know that I struggle with sin as I live in this fallen and sin-filled world. There is nothing I can bring to You that is not tainted by sin.  I realize that I am totally dependent on Your grace and love for true and abundant life.  That is why I humbly offer my life and my love to You.  For You alone can rescue me from the kingdom and darkness and make me a part of Your glorious kingdom.  That is where I want to be!

Daily Thought: Obscurity Never Stopped God

"Would you be willing to give your life to save the world if no one ever knew your name?  If anonymity was the price you would have to pay for significance, would it be too great a price?  To live a life of courage is not a guarantee of prestige or adulation, but there is a freedom in humility.  It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks or what others say.  It only matters if you live and die fulfilling the mission you were born for...Obscurity has never stopped God from accomplishing great things.  Our poverty has never been His limitation, our position not important for His advantage.  Our reputation seems nothing more than incidental." ~ Erwin McManus, Uprising, pp. 62-63

The Freedom to Do What is Right

The goal of faith in Christ Jesus is not heaven but Christlikeness.  Heaven, which is being in the presence of the Triune God, is the result of our commitment to be like Christ Jesus.  The apostle John reminds us that; “Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Christ did” (1 John 2:6; NLT).  We can’t be with God if we are not on the road towards Christlikeness.

Much of what we find in the letters of the apostle Paul are about this reality.  Over and over again we find Paul urging his readers to take off the old way of living and put on the new life.  To actually clothe ourselves with Christ. For this reason Paul writes:

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:5-8; ESV).

Jesus could have clung to His rights as God and remained in heaven but instead He put those rights to the side and obediently serves humankind out of the love He has for the Father and the love He has for His creation.  Part of becoming like Christ, according to Paul, is to adopt humility as a way of life.

How do we imitate this attitude of humility?  I think it begins by recognizing that God has given us certain rights.  I have the right to pursue a self-centered life, that doesn’t mean that is the best decision to make, but it is a choice God has allowed me to freely make.  The nature of freedom is that there is more than one option open to us.  While I have the right to pursue a self-centered lifestyle I also have the right to put others ahead of myself.  For example, in the evening I have the right to sit on the couch and “unwind” while watching television.  Couch sitting and television watching is an option open to me if I want to do it.  Yet, another option is to take my dog Barkley for a walk since he has been in his kennel all day long.  I much rather “unwind,” but Barkley needs to be walked, and I am free to choose to go for walk and not live a life that is totally about me.

If we are going to be like Jesus requires that we don’t focus simply on what we desire the most in the moment, but to do what is right.  Adam and Eve were free to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but that wasn’t the right choice.  God told the couple not to eat from that tree and that there would be negative consequences if they did.  The right choice was to freely eat of any of the other trees that populated the garden.

Ananias and Sapphira were free to use their land, and the money, anyway they wanted to use it, but giving only part of the money and lying about it wasn’t the right choice.  Freedom is a dangerous responsibility because people have the ability to choose the wrong thing.  If we are going to be like Christ Jesus we need to discover the right choice and then commit our lives to doing it.

The apostle Paul said that Jesus chose to obey the Father.  In our freedom how do we know what right option is?  The right choice is what lines up with God’s will.  If we just base this choice off of feelings we will often choose wrong because more often than not our feelings are contrary to God’s will, and therefore we will end up living a life of disobedience rather than a life of obedience.

The apostle Paul also wrote; Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (ESV). In order to know God's will and be able to make the right choice, we have to submit to God as He transforms our minds.  That requires the humility to admit that we don't know what is best, and trust God to do the right thing.

We make the best use of our freedom, not through indulging every little desire that we have, but by choosing to serve people.  When we demand that people acknowledge our rights we push people away from us, but when we choose to love we open up an opportunity for people to see God.  Christ chose to serve His followers and we must make the same choice.

Daily Thought: The Foundation of Community

"There is no ideal community.  Community is made up of people with all their richness, but also with their weakness and poverty, of people who accept and forgive each other, who are vulnerable with each other.  Humility and trust are more at the foundation of community than perfection." ~ John Ortberg, Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them, p. 48

Being What Jesus Desires

Water is one of life’s essentials. As scientists look for life on other planets one of the things they look for is the presence of water, because without water life cannot exist. We need water to survive.

I know that when it is hot out, like it is right now in mid-July, there is nothing better than something cold to drink. Sometimes you will hear someone respond when asked what they would like to drink, “I don’t care as long as it is cold.” When it is hot outside being able to drink a glass of cold water is a very good thing.

When the weather is cooler there is little better to help keep you warm than hot water. I love taking hot showers in the winter time along with drinking a large mug of hot chocolate. Many people turn to hot water for therapeutic reasons, to relax stiff muscles and release tension. Having hot water is a very good thing.

I remember going out to fix fence with my brother on a hot summer day while growing up on the farm. We were driving the loader tractor with bucket full of what we would need. On the tractor was a jug of water left over from when we baled hay a couple of weeks before, and being thirsty I took a big gulp of that water and immediately spit it out. It was terrible! The water in that jug was good for nothing.

There is a passage in Revelation that we misinterpret so often. Christ Jesus has the apostle John write these words to the church in Laodicea:

“‘ know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:15-16; ESV).

The way we normally hear this passage interpreted is that Jesus wants us to either be on fire for Him or totally cold towards Him rather than trying to ride the fence between the two. Such an interpretation misses out on a very important point of what Jesus was saying: cold water is good to drink. Cold water isn’t bad, but it is a very good a useful thing, just as hot water is useful and good.

The point Jesus is making is that the Laodiceans thought they were so self-sufficient, that they had things so together, that they were not useful to Him. Because of their wealth, their medicine, and their education they thought they had everything they needed, but Jesus reminds them that they didn’t. Not only did their city lack a good source of fresh water, but they lacked the humility and the faith to experience God’s transforming power in their lives.

Craig Keener in Revelation: The NIV Application Commentary wrote:

“Laodicea boasted great resources, but while the Laodicean Christians likely shared their Laodicean neighbor’s pride over their self-sufficiency in many respects, they presumably also shared a common dislike for their water supply...In contrast to its claims of self-sufficiency (3:17), it had to pipe in its water; though much of the aqueduct from the south was underground nearer the city it came through stone barrel pipes, thus remaining vulnerable to any intended besiegers who wished to cut off the city’s water supply. More important, this water had grown lukewarm by the time of its arrival. 

“The point of the lukewarm water is simply that it is disgusting, in contrast to the more directly useful ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ water; all the churches would plainly understand this warning...Jesus thus finds the church in Laodicea to be other than what he desires (cf. Isa. 5:2-6). In today’s English, he is telling the self-satisfied church in Laodicea: ‘I want water that will refresh me, but you remind me instead of the water you always complain about. You make me want to puke” (pp. 158-159).

Jesus desires that His followers be a certain type of people. We are to be poor in spirit, meek, merciful, and peacemakers just to name a few characteristics. When we are proud and live our lives on our own terms rather than by God’s will we become something that is disgusting Jesus. We are unfit to be called His disciples, and He will get rid of us if we don’t comply to His desires. It is then that we can be used for His purposes.

Yes, it is good not to sit on the fence and to have our passion run hot for Jesus, but that was not the problem Jesus was addressing with the Church in Laodicea. Their problem was a refusal to rely on the grace of God for life as they insisted that they could find life on their own. Jesus wanted to remind them that they weren’t as self-reliant as they thought. We must heed this warning, not to try to muster up our passion for Jesus, but rather to humbly surrender our lives to Him. That is when we will be the most useful to Him.

Daily Thought: That God May Be All

"The highest glory or the creature is in being only a vessel, to receive and enjoy and show forth the glory of God.  It can do this only as it is willing to be nothing in itself, that God may be all." ~ Andrew Murray, Humility and Absolute Surrender, p. 55

Daily Thought: Divine Humility

"I call this a Divine humility because it is a poor thing to strike our colours to God when the ship is going down under us; a poor thing to come to Him as a last resort, to offer up 'our own' when it is no longer worth keeping.  If God were proud He would hardly have us on such terms: but He is not proud, He stoops to conquer, He will have us even through we have shown that we prefer everything else to Him, and to come to Him because there is 'nothing better' now to be had." ~ C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, pp. 86-87

Daily Thought: The Path to Gladness

"Men sometimes speak as if humility and meekness would rob us of what is noble and bold and manlike.  Oh, that all would believe that this is the nobility of the kingdom of Heaven, that this is the royal spirit that the King of Heaven displayed, that this is Godlike, to humble oneself, to become the servant of all!  This is the path to the gladness and the glory of Christ's presence ever in us, his power ever resting on us." ~ Andrew Murray, Humility and Absolute Surrender, p. 20

Andrew Murray: Denial of Self

I love books and I enjoy introducing people to the joy of reading books.  One of the problems that we face when it comes to reading is the sheer number of books that is available to us.  How do we know what to read?  Over the course of the next several days I am going to share excerpts from books that I have found valuable so you will have an idea whether or not it will appeal to you.  This first excerpt comes from Andrew Murray's book Absolute Surrender.

"I say again, God will bless you.  You have been praying for blessing.  But do remember, there must be absolute surrender.  At every tea-table you see it.  Why is tea poured into that cup? Because it is empty, and given up for the tea.  But put ink, or vinegar, or wine into it, and will they pour tea into the vessel? And can God fill you, can God bless you, if you are not absolutely surrendered to him? He cannot.  Let us believe God has wonderful blessings for us, if we will but stand up for God, and say, be it with trembling will, yet with a believing heart: 'O God, I accept thy demands. I am thine and all that I have.  Absolute surrender is what my soul yields to thee by divine grace.'

"You may not have such strong clear feeling of deliverances as you would desire to have, but humble yourselves in his sight, and acknowledge that you have grieved the Holy Spirit by your self-will, self-confidence, and self-effort.  Bow humbly before him in the confession of that, and ask him to break the heart and to bring you into the dust before him.  Then, as you bow before him, just accept God's teaching that in your flesh 'there dwelleth no good thing,' [Rom. 7:18] and that nothing will help you except another life which must come in.  You must deny self once for all.  Denying self must every moment be the power of your life, and then Christ will come in and take possession of you...

"God the Father loves to give us the power of the Spirit.  We have the Spirit of God dwelling within us.  We come to God confessing that, and praising God for it, and yet confessing how we have grieved the Spirit.  And then we bow our knees to the Father to ask that he would strengthen us with all might by the Spirit in the inner man, and that he would fill us with his mighty power.  And as the Spirit reveals Christ to us, Christ comes to live in our hearts forever, and the self-life is cast out."

Andrew Murray, Humility and Absolute Surrender, pp. 74-75

Make the Right Choice

The goal of faith in Christ Jesus is not heaven but Christlikeness.  Heaven, which is being in the presence of the Triune God, is the result of our commitment to be like Christ Jesus.  The apostle John reminds us that; Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Christ did (1 John 2:6; NLT).  We can’t be with God if we are not on the road towards Christlikeness.

In the same line of thinking the apostle Paul wrote:

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:5-8; ESV).

Jesus could have clung to His rights as God and remained in heaven, instead He laid aside those rights and obediently served humankind out of the love He has for the Father and the love He has for His creation.  It is this attitude of humility that Paul insists that we should imitate.

How do we imitate this attitude of humility?  I think it begins by recognizing that we have certain rights.  I have the right to pursue a self-centered life, that doesn’t mean that is the correct option, but God has given me that choice.  The nature of freedom is that there is more than one option open to us.  While I have the right to pursue a self-centered lifestyle I also have the right to put others ahead of myself.  For example, in the evening I have the right to sit on the couch and “unwind” while watching television.  Couch sitting and television watching is an option open to me if I want to do it.  Yet, another option is to take my dog Barkley for a walk since he has been in his kennel all day long.  I much rather “unwind,” but Barkley need to be walked, and I am free to choose to go for walk and not live a life that is totally about me.

If we are going to be like Jesus requires that we don’t focus simply on what we are free to do, but that we seek to discover what is right.  Adam and Eve were free to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but that wasn’t the right choice.  God told the couple not to eat from the tree, the right choice was to use the other fruit trees as food.

Ananias and Sapphira were free to use their land, and the money, anyway they wanted to, but giving only part of the money and lying about it wasn’t the right choice.  Freedom is a dangerous responsibility because people have the ability to choose the wrong thing.  If we are going to be like Christ Jesus we need to discover the right choice and then commit our lives to doing it.

The apostle Paul said that Jesus chose to obey the Father.  How do we know what the right option is?  The right choice is what lines up with God’s will.  If we just base this choice off of feelings we will often choose wrong because more often than not our feelings are contrary to God’s will, and therefore we will end up living a life of disobedience rather than a life of obedience.

We make the best use of our freedom, not through indulging every little desire that we have, but by choosing to serve people.  When we demand that people acknowledge our rights rights we push people away from us, but when we choose to love we open up an opportunity for people to see God.  Christ chose to serve His followers first and we must make the same choice.

I Am Powerless

One of the hardest truths to accept as we follow Jesus is how utterly dependent we are upon God.  It is one thing to know and teach this truth, but it is another to truly live it.  My experience has been one that trusted God to save me from the consequences of sin, but sought to rely on my power to escape the power of sin that had a hold of my life.  That is why what the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 7:24 resonated with me so deeply; Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? (NLT).

As I read the chapter O Wretched Man that I Am! in Andrew Murray’s book Absolute Surrender a great truth began to take root in my heart.  Murray writes:


The new will is a permanent gift, and attribute of the new nature.  The power to do is not a permanent gift, but must be each moment received from the Holy Spirit.  It is the man who is conscious of his own impotence as a believer who will learn that by the Holy Spirit he can live a holy life (p. 122; Humility and Absolute Surrender).

While it is true that there is a Divine side and a human side of transformation, the reality is that even what God has left for us to do requires His power.  I can’t crucify my flesh on my own, I can’t love my enemies on my own, and I can’t be holy like God is holy on my own; I need God’s help.

One of the thoughts I had as I pondered Murray’s words was what we lost at the Fall.  You see, Adam and Eve couldn’t live out their design apart from their relationship to God.  They needed that relationship in order to truly be human.  I think we sometimes get the idea that we can get along fine by our own effort, and we only need God’s power when we really get into a jam.  Over and over again we try to change our lives by our own power and to try to work up the love, courage, and strength we need to do the work God has placed before us, and over and over again we fail.  We keep telling ourselves that if we only had more desire or a better plan, then we could accomplish what God wants from our lives, but we never seem to able to muster up what we need.  That is why we are miserable people, because we have new hearts that desire what is right, but our flesh is unable to to do it.

Even in an unfallen state you and I need God’s strength, power, and Spirit to assist us in doing what is right.  That is why the apostle Paul wrote:

Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him (Philippians 2:12-13; NLT).

Paul tells the Philippians that they are to work so that the fruit of salvation could be seen in their lives and that they were to obey God in what He asked them to do.  Yet, what does Paul say in verse 13?  It was God  is working in them that made all that possible.  They would not be able to live lives that pleased God without the reality of God working in their lives.

That brings us back to the Andrew Murray quote.  We can’t change our desires, that is something only God can do, and so the promise of Scripture is that God will give His people new hearts and in the process begin to change our desires.  Yet, the next part is something that we must do, and that is to respond to those new desires by doing what is right.  Too often, at least for me, we have thought this meant that we had to crucify our flesh, that we had to stop doing evil and start doing good, and we always ended up failing.  Which then caused us to feel guilty and unhappy, in other words we began to be miserable.  There has been a time in my life I was so miserable that I was ready to hang Christianity up, not because I thought it was false, but because I thought it was impossible.

It is impossible, but what is impossible for you and me is possible with God.  That is why when it comes to acting out our new nature and living out our new desires the first step isn’t action, but it is surrender.  It is offering our bodies as living sacrifices, which means that we get up on the cross, but we allow the Holy Spirit to pound the nails.  You and I need start each day asking God to fill us with His Spirit and to help us to be loving and courageous, because we cannot live holy lives otherwise. 

I guess what I am trying to say today is this: We cannot live holy lives [lives that love God and love people] until we daily surrender our lives to Him.  That means we have to let go of all of our pride and self-love and humbly give our lives to God.  This is not easy, but I bet that the more we do it the more will begin to look like Jesus, and that will help us to become the people God created us to be.

To Become Truly Human

A couple of weeks ago I was on ChristianBook.com to order a book for Sunday School class.  While I was there I thought I might as well check out the bargain books to see if there was anything of interest.  As I browsed through the books I came across a book that is part of the Hendrickson Christian Classic Collection, actually it is two books in one: Humility and Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray.  I don’t know anything about Andrew Murray, but the reviews were positive and the book was only $7 so I decided to give it a try since I am trying to broaden my reading circle to include older books.

I received the book last Friday and began reading it on Sunday morning before worship.  This morning during my devotional time I read:

Men sometimes speak as if humility and meekness would rob us of what is noble and bold and manlike.  Oh, that this is the royal spirit that the Kingdom of Heaven is displayed, that is Godlike, to humble oneself, to become the servant of all!  This is the path to the gladness and the glory of Christ’s presence ever in us, his power ever resting on us (p. 20).

What hit me was the fact that I have often seen humility in exactly those terms, that to truly be humble would in some way rob people what what it truly means to be human.  To me to be human means that we are able to live out our God given rights and to make the choices that will govern our lives.  The problem is the focus of that type of thinking, the focus is on self.  Sure we can clothe our thinking in terms of love and service, but that doesn’t mean the choices we make are free from self-serving motives.

Let us stop for a moment and consider some very surprising words from the apostle Paul:

Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.

Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:1-11; NLT).

For starters we notice that Paul expects Christians to be humble, to put other people before themselves.  This doesn’t come naturally to us, but it is choice that we must make.  In other words we discover that humility doesn’t originate in our feelings, but rather in our actions (which are always preceded by a choice).  We have to choose to take the humble course.

What we also see is that we are to have the same attitude of Christ Jesus, who was humble.  Here we run into one of the most amazing truths of Christianity: God is humble!  What other God, besides YHWH, the Creator of heaven and earth is humble?  His humility is seen in His willingness to be a Servant to His creation, and the greatest example of this is Christ Jesus.

Since one of Christ’s tasks is to restore us to true humanity it would then follow the path towards truly being human is the path of humility.  It is the path where we voluntary lay down our rights and pick up obedience.  If we cling too tightly to our rights and privileges and reject the example of Jesus then we will miss out on the life God wants us to live.

Verse 5 of Philippians 2 might be better translated, as the ESV does, as; Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.  I bring this up for two reasons.  First, I think it is easy to confuse attitude with feelings, and so we could get the impression that Paul is trying to tell us that we need to conjure up the feeling of humility in our lives.  The second reason is because I want to remind us what the good apostle wrote in the book of Romans; Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2; ESV).  The way of the world is to insist on our equality and on our rights, and so we need to have our minds renewed.  We run into the reality that we cannot renew our minds.  There are certain actions we can take that will help in the process, but ultimately we are helpless to make this transformation.

If we are going to be humble then we have to realize that humility begins and it ends with God.  We have to throw ourselves on His mercy and ask for Him to renew our minds and to create in us humble hearts.  It is making the choice of release the control of our lives to God, and to trust Him with what we need.  This is in essence what humility is about. 

Andrew Murray wrote; “Humility is not so much a grace or virtue along with others; it is the root of all, because it alone takes the right attitude before God, and allows him as God to do all” (p. 7; emphasis added).  Humility is not something that come naturally, nor is it something that we particularly desire, but when we recognize God for who He is what other option do we have?  True humanity is not found in holding on to our rights, but it is found in surrendering those rights to God and allowing Him to use our lives.

Be Humble and See God at Work

Originally posted on Saturday, September 18, 2004

The circumstances of life have a way of reminding us that the life we are living is not the life we wanted. Too often we find ourselves in positions and situations in which we had no desire to be. Divorce is never part of our plan for a happy life nor is being stuck in a job which you hate. Being broken hearted and feeling insignificant is not what we hoped for in our lives.

No matter who you are or the life you have lived I would bet that you have been broken hearted or wondered about the significance of your life. Situations and circumstances in your life make you wonder what life is all about. You even question whether or not God exists, and perhaps you come to the conclusion that a loving God would not let His people experience these painful circumstances.

When things don’t go the way we planned it is important to remember what Ravi Zacharias wrote in Cries of the Heart; “Only as we remember and remind ourselves of God’s faithfulness can we even see the pattern God has woven in our lives and learn confidence in His working.” God is working in our lives, even when our lives don’t turned out as planned.

My heart is broken. I want the pain to go away so I can get back to living life, yet the broken dream continues to haunt me. Living alone is a constant reminder of the loneliness I am experiencing in my heart, and it becomes easy for me to question God’s faithfulness and wonder about His purpose in my life. Yet, it is at times like this that I am drawn to God’s Word.

I believe when we focus on situations and circumstances we lose sight of how God has worked through our lives. All we see is the present and the selective images from the past which we use to justify the way we feel. We totally miss the bigger picture; and how God has been working through our lives to prepare us for the life He has created us to live. It is easy to forget God’s faithfulness when we focus on our current circumstances.

The apostle Peter wrote; So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and in his good time he will honor you. Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you (1 Peter 5:6, 7; NLT).

Humility is the key to seeing God’s hand at work in our lives. When we are humble we are able to remember that life isn’t about us, but it is about God’s Kingdom. We are then able to understand that happiness is found, not in our dreams coming true, but in our seeking His Kingdom.

Though it is hard to believe God cares for us when our hearts are broken, it is important that we don’t allow ourselves to be swept away by our emotions. For that to happen we have to be grounded in reality, and that takes going back to the Bible. In Scripture we discover that the best life we can have is found in the Kingdom. We also discover that God allows bad things to happen to us so that we will let go of our desires for the things of this world and set our hearts on Him and His Kingdom. We can trust that God will get us through the terrible times of life, because the Bible tells us that He cares about what happens to us.

Life won’t turn out like we dreamed it would, and that is okay. Through the pain and struggles of our lives God draws us close to Him. When we humble ourselves we begin to see God’s hand at work all through our lives. He will continue to reach out to us, for He cares about us. God wants us to live the life He created us to live, and that is the best possible life that we could live.

Sunday Quote: Going to God in Gratitude

“Humility brings us to God not out of obligation but out of gratitude. When we humble ourselves we choose the place of least honor and allow God to call us to any role of servanthood He might desire. Humility begins with emptying ourselves so that we can receive from God all that we need for the journey.” ~ Erwin McManus, Stand Against the Wind; p. 34

Pride Is Dangerous

When I look back on my life I want to do it with a sense of pride. I want to be able to say that I don’t have regrets and that I lived a life of faith and integrity. It isn’t about feeling like I am better than other people, but about understanding that I gave my best effort. We should be proud when we do our best to complete a task.

While there is a proper time and place for pride to exist, a life defined by pride is deadly. Pride, perhaps more than any other reason, keeps people from God, and from develop close relationships with other people. The arrogance of pride seeks to elevate us about all others. Consider what John Ortberg wrote in The Life You’ve Always Wanted:

“At the deepest level, pride is the choice to exclude both God and other people from their rightful place in our hearts. Jesus said that the essence of spiritual life is to love God and to love people. Pride destroys our capacity to love...Pride moves us to exclude instead of to embrace. Pride moves us to bow down before a mirror rather than before God. Pride moves us to judge rather than to serve. Pride means not only that we want to be smart and wealthy, but also that we will not be satisfied until we are smarter and wealthier than those around us. Pride is essentially comparative in nature.” (p. 110)

How do we fight the arrogant pride our flesh calls us to embrace? Let me offer you three ideas.

1. Consider Jesus. The apostle Paul wrote in Philippians that our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5). Following verse 5, Paul describes the attitude of Jesus that we should imitate. If we are following Jesus then we need to do our best aligning our lives with His life.
2. Serve in small things. This is the essence of Christianity. In Matthew 25:31-46, the teaching on final judgment, we notice that those who are saved do the small acts of service. The give food to the hungry, clothe the naked, and visit the lonely. These acts of service aren’t going to bring accolades and recognition, but they will remind us that great joy is found in the simplest things. Helping those in need is more important that making a name for ourselves.
3. Submit to God. James 4:6 and 1 Peter 5:5 reminds us that God gives grace to the humble and opposes pride. Then both writers basically tell us the same thing: submit to God. This is a choice that we make, it won’t come naturally to us, but is something that we do in spite of our feelings. Until we submit to God it will be impossible for us to be humble, and arrogance will haunt us every day of our lives.

Pride is deadly to our Christian walk. We have to take the appropriate measures to guard against it, for it will steal away from us the relationships that really matter, and will prevent us from having the type of influence that could really make a difference.

I want to encourage you to read Philippians 2:1-11 and ask God to show you how you can imitate the humility of Jesus. It is through humility that we are able to live the life God created us to live.

• Point to Ponder: It is through humility that we are able to live the life God created us to live.
• Passage to Remember: Philippians 2:1-11
• Question to Consider: How has pride hurt your relationships with God and other people?

To Be Humble

I am not a good person. In my life I have lied, stolen, gossiped, cursed, broken the law, disobeyed my parents, had lustful thoughts, hated, hurt people, and the list could go on. The wicked and evil that I have done in my life as well as the evil that has dwelt in my heart means that I am not a good person. Though I try to rationalize it and convince myself that everyone makes mistakes and that no one is perfect, it still doesn’t undo the sin that is in my life. I may seem good next Hitler or the murderer on death row, but the reality is that I am not good. Goodness is something that I have been unable to achieve since the very first time I sinned.

David in Psalm 14:3 wrote; Everyone rejects God; they are all morally corrupt. None of them does what is right, not even one! (NET) There maybe parts of us that are good. We may have done a lot of good in our lives, but that goodness doesn’t make up for the fact that we are sinful and under the penalty of that sin. It is impossible for us to become good once evil has entered our lives through sin.

The reality is that I am not good, but I am being made good. Let me attempt to explain. I am not good and there is no action that I can do that will make me good. Thanks to the wonderful grace of God becoming good doesn’t rest on my actions, but on what Jesus has done for me. I am righteous, not because I have kept the Law and have a pure heart, but because I have trusted in Jesus.The apostle Paul wrote:

21 So is the law in conflict with the promises of God? Of course not! For if a law had been given that could give us life, then certainly righteousness would come through the law. 22 But the Scripture has put everything under the power of sin, so that what was promised by the faithfulness of Christ might be given to those who believe. (Galatians 3:21-22; ISV)

I didn’t achieve the righteous standard that I have because I am such a good guy, but because Jesus gave it to me.

Here is the point I want to make: The reason that I should be humble about my position, the reason why I shouldn’t gloat about my righteousness is the knowledge that except for the grace of God I to am not righteous. I shouldn’t look down on people for not living up to my standard of morality, because I don’t even live up to that standard, let alone to God’s ultimate standard. Humility is the result of remembering our position in God’s Kingdom: it is a gift rather than something I have earned.

I think that it is important for Christians to remember this. It is not by following the Law that made us righteous in God’s sight, but it was our faith in Jesus Christ. What the world needs is not more law that they can’t keep but hope of a better Way to live. They need Jesus.

In Philippians the apostle Paul reminds us that one reason we should be humble is because Jesus was humble:

3 Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself. 4 Each of you should be concerned not only about your own interests, but about the interests of others as well. 5 You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had, 6 who though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature. 8 He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross! 9 As a result God exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow - in heaven and on earth and under the earth - 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:3-11; NET)

The key here is humility. One way for us to be humble is by remembering where we came from and why things are now different. We were sinners until we trusted in Jesus Christ. By following Jesus the course of our lives was changed. A second reason that should help bring humility into our lives is to remember the humility Jesus demonstrated by leaving heaven and becoming a man. Since Jesus left heaven and came to earth to serve sinners I should be able to serve the people around me. Humility is essential if we are going to take the love of God to a dying world who desperately needs it.

• Point to Ponder: The reason that I should be humble about my position, the reason why I shouldn’t gloat about my righteousness is the knowledge that except for the grace of God I to am not righteous.
• Passage to Remember: Philippians 2:3-11
• Question to Consider: Do you struggle with a superior attitude?